Award Winning Photographs

The first railroad dining cars were attached to passenger trains in the nineteenth century. George Pullman, famous for the sleeper car, introduced the Delmonico dining car. The upscale dining car served food for the budget-breaking price of one dollar per meal.
The 1940/50s were the golden age of train travel and the dining car was a passenger’s favorite part of the trip. For the railroad, the dining car was expensive to build, staff and operate. Not only was a separate fully functional kitchen car required, the train had to be stocked with crockery, glassware, tablecloths, flatware, menus, and of course food.
To operate the “restaurant” on wheels, an average crew of ten people were required: cooks, waiters, bartenders, and a steward. All members of the crew, especially the chef, had to be able to perform duties while the train was in constant motion: rocking, slowing, speeding up, taking sharp curves—sometimes at eighty miles per hour.
Liquor was available in the dining car or club room car. However, in 1950, alcohol could not be sold while traveling through Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.

Girona is a city in northeastern Spain on the Costa Brava, which is near the French border.
The Romans originally built Girona and its original city walls survived until the late 19th century when the walls were demolished, allowing for city expansion.
Girona’s history includes twenty-five sieges, during which it was captured seven times. In May of 1809, thirty-five thousand French Napolenoic troops besieged the town, which held out until December 12, 1809 when it was forced to capitulate because of disease and famine.

The average annual snowfall in New York City is 28 inches. Almost that much snow fell on one weekend in February, 2006. On February 11th and 12th of 2006, a total of 26.9 inches of snow fell on Central Park. It was the largest snowfall recorded since record keeping began in 1869.
To speed removal of snow throughout the city, diesel powered snow melting machines were used, each of which melted sixty tons of snow per hour. The resulting water went directly into the sewer system.
By Wednesday of that week, Central Park recorded a high temperature of 52 degrees.

On June 30, 1977, trucks and airplanes replaced the railroad mail car as the main mover of United States mail. Movement of mail by train began in 1832 after businesses and members of the public complained mail delivery by horse or stagecoach was too slow.
Beginning in 1864 all mail in transit was beginning to be distributed by railroad mail cars. Assistant Postmaster William A. Davis in St. Joseph, Missouri is credited with creating the rolling post office to process and distribute United States mail.
As the train neared the station, the route agent would toss out the processed mail bag through the big open door of the mail car.
Then as the train left the station, the agent snatched the unprocessed mail bag hanging on a pole next to the track with a hook (catcher arm) extended from the rail car.
Along the route to the next station the agent sorted, processed and prepared a new mail bag to toss to the next station, grabbed the next mail bag on the route and did it all again.

In February 2005, Christo and Jeanne-Claude erected 7,500 free hanging saffron colored fabric panels on twenty-three miles of walkway in New York City’s Central Park. They were called the Gates of Central Park and were in place for 16 days, attracting millions of visitors. When the Gates were removed, all the materials were recycled.
5,390 tons of steel, 315,491 feet of vinyl tubing, 99,155 square meters of fabric, and 15,000 sets of brackets and hardware was used by the artists to create the Gates of Central Park.
Judged Best of Photography in 2013 Shelby County Arts Council 6th annual Juried Art Show.

An example of life before the horseless carriage.
As the automobile began to make its appearance in rural America, many a land owner decried the "the devil wagon". It frightened livestock, rutted every road it traveled and was too wide to easily pass in a horse drawn wagon.

The average annual snowfall in New York City is 28 inches. Almost that much snow fell on one weekend in February, 2006. On February 11th and 12th of 2006, a total of 26.9 inches of snow fell on Central Park. It was the largest snowfall recorded since record keeping began in 1869.
To speed removal of snow throughout the city, diesel powered snow melting machines were used, each of which melted sixty tons of snow per hour. The resulting water went directly into the sewer system.
By Wednesday of that week, Central Park recorded a high temperature of 52 degrees.

Manhattan diners, what some New Yorkers call kitchen, are found on almost every block in the city. Every New Yorker has his or her favorite—some more than one.
Open 24/7 ever day of the year, diners have multipage menus with a large selection of entrées and side dishes. And, if you can't find it on the menu—most will fix it for you anyway. Whether you're craving breakfast, lunch, brunch, supper, dinner, or just desserts the diner is the place to go.
The Olympic Flame Diner at 60th and Amsterdam was our favorite, it was just a half block away our apartment building.

In the wild, Zebras live together in family groups where members maintain strong bonds over many years. Family members watch out for one another. If one is separated from the family, the other zebras search for the missing member.
Although every zebra in a herd appears to look alike, the strip patterns are as distinctive as fingerprints are for humans. Individual zebras are identified by comparing patterns, strip widths, colors and scars.

Throughout New York City plumes of steam raise up from the underground, sometimes from giant white and red tubes, or from manhole covers.
Con Edison not only supplies electricity to New York City, but it also operates and maintains the world’s largest network of steam pipes.
Without the steam pipe network, Saumil Shukla, vice president of steam operations at Con Edison said, “Had it not been for the steam system, the postcard skyline that you see of Manhattan would be totally different. You’d be looking at every one of these high-rises with some type of chimney coming out of it.”

The Bethesda Terrace Arcade is the underground passageway to and from Central Park's Bethesda Terrace. The main feature of the Arcade is the Minton tile Ceiling. It is the only known example of Minton encaustic ceramic tiles used in a suspended ceiling. The Arcade was designed by Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould. The ceiling is made up of 15,876 elaborately pattered encaustic tiles, which were handmade by Minton and Company—a leading 19th century manufacturer in Stokes-on-Trent, England. Completed in 1869, the Arcade was completely restored in early 2007.

A thick January morning fog covers the west side of Manhattan. From an apartment window, 51 stories up, one can see the dirty fog below and the blue sky above. Yellow taxis, with other vehicles, creep along Amsterdam Avenue heading uptown. In 1808, John Randall, Jr. laid out the plans for New York City's street system. He designed a gridiron system of north-south avenues crossed at right angles by east-west streets. His gridiron spanned the area of east Houston Street to 155th Street. This system is still in use today.